Like a string of pearls

Progressive continuity of action is the key to adopting new habits.

If the repetition is there in the right frequency, and the right chunk size – not too big or complex; not too many steps at once; it will pattern and habituate to WHATEVER you do.

In fact; you’re doing it right now.

You see, the brain is continuously patterning and pushing forward in an “X+1” way whatever and however you happen to be doing it, at any time.

You are always building habits whether you think about it or not.

This might be chilling but to me it is a liberating realization because that means at any time and even in this moment you can begin working on new patterns of thought.

Whether you will or not depends on whether you have started to build our “anti-defending the suffering” skills or not.

The robot is always willing to whisper to you that something is too difficult or you don’t have the energy, and it would be better to just carry on as you have.

You see, most of your internal commentary is actually just robot-habituated chewing gum – same old patterns of gunk, same old filters, same old same old results.

You do, of course, have the choice of trying to wrestle with the robot, reason with the robot, reprimand the robot, etc. But it’s got an advantage in that most folks are identified AS the robot – thinking they’re thinking, thinking they are “this” and not “that”, worried about whether their butt looks big in this outfit, imagining scenarios of awfulness that will most likely not occur, repeating the sleep mantra “Everything will stay as it is. Nothing to worry about… except [INSERT FAVORITE UNPLEASANT SCENARIO HERE]. You can be a Master of the Universe with no effort for only three low payments of $39.95…”

Building a better success system is quintessentially about figuring out HOW to build a bridge between here and there, along with developing and refining one’s abilities in performing the necessary tweaks to make things work more smoothly towards it.

In my monthly and weekly reviews I identified it was necessary to make a major revision in my workflow, given the projects and goals for the next quarter.

It requires that I change major sequences in my workflows and in two cases, it will go against my preferred (and habitual) ways of doing things smoothly. But if I want smooth and optimized outputs in the projects, the changes have to be made.

I’m getting in front of the need to change by breaking the changes down into small components – smaller than might seem necessary.

I’ve started adding the components one at a time, every day or two – just sliding them in so as not to annoy the robot. Yesterday I added three as they were obvious and easy. I may just run this for a few days, just nice and easy, no sweat.

I’ve added them to my tasks for the day and I use reinforcement – both internal voice, and a pen-marked star on my week’s plan. The game here is just comfortably sliiiiiiding into the new behaviors without major effort.

Because they are not my preferred method, they have the possibility of turning into resistance or “robot-unconsciousness-forgetting” unless it is managed and worked.

It’s like sliding pearls on a string, one after the other, peacefully and calmly, moving forward on all fronts to achieve what I want.

In the same way as creating internal changes has to be done in a “connected up way” (think of Richard Bandler’s analogy of a flip book that has one drawing per page. You have to flip through the pages at the right, smooth and connected-up speed for the brain to make it look like the drawing is moving).

The difference between changing one reaction pattern at a time internally, and building your Prosperity System is that we are developing skills to change the whole system from within the system – most folks never get beyond the “Jedi mind tricks” stage because they don’t develop the capacity for self-change AND self-management.

And it comes down to the usual suspects we’ve discussed previously…

Connecting the dots in the right order and rhythm is also a skill. Without external feedback (output orientation, tracking, etc.); it won’t happen.
People flake out with “Yeah, I’ve got it” without actually developing the skill (“You’ve got a handful of nothing… NEXT!”), or “I understand the principle” (“Nope… means nothing if you can’t do it… NEXT!”).

This is a skill that has an endless gradient. No matter how skillful you are; there’s always better. I mentioned master musicians and metronomes before – they love it.

It’s the amateurs who tend to wrestle with it. The metronome is a calibration device and a human being as a living and dynamic system needs calibration and tuning-up frequently, in order to get best results.

1. Choose some change you know will improve your results. It can be project related or general life related but it must be something worthwhile.
2. Specify what you want to do differently. Work through and write down how the changes will influence other areas in your life and make sure that the payoff will be high enough. As you already know; detail here feeds results.
3. Assess what specifically you are doing now… the how’s rather than your opinion about it. Pattern out the behavioral details and write it down.
4. Work out and write down the sequence of behaviors and activities from #2. Break it down into component activities and then the sequence.
5. Experiment with running the first one or few steps in the process. Can you do it easily? Is it relatively smooth? Add one or a few more pieces of the activities from the sequence in order.
6. Consider these periodic additions in the way an actor or musician rehearses, working on specific segments of a piece in one session, and then progressing on to other sections, in later sessions. When you’re ready, try a “full dress rehearsal” of the change.Make any changes or amendments necessary.
7. Go ahead and change.